Name Bingo

A relaxed icebreaker game for large groups

Also known as: People Bingo, Get To Know You Bingo


How To Play Name Bingo

Materials Needed

paper, pens

This is probably one of the oldest and most well known icebreakers. It's also known as "People Bingo" and "Get To Know You Bingo". It works for groups of all ages, and can be a really interesting game if played properly.

You'll need to create a name bingo sheet, so basically a 4 x 4 or 5 x 5 grid of personal statements. IE. "has long hair" or "has more than 5 siblings" or "has travelled overseas" etc

Hand these people bingo sheets out to each person and give them a pen, and then send them off to mingle and find people that fit in the gaps. Each player can only use another person once on their sheet.

So the game can either finish when someone collects a name for the entire grid.

Alternatively, the game can continue and bingo can be played after everyone has completed their grids. So a leader would start reading out the names of the youth group kids and then they would need to cross off a name when it has been called - if they get 4 in a row - they win!

Download Youth Group Games Name Bingo Template (DOC)

Added by
Joel
on 22 December 2007


14 Comments

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I would want to play this game called name the bingo on website for your website ty

Posted by Liam 5 years ago

Some questions

Posted by Leena 5 years ago

You could also have each person have a blank bingo card. There is a series of questions that will fill in the blank spaces with info about themselves. Favorite food, favorite band, YouTuber, or favorite show etc. Then go around the room and as they ask people the same questions, they get to mark those things off.
Whoever wins gets something from the stuff stash.

Posted by Heather 5 years ago

Hi,
I find it always interesting. I have made this game by altering something. More related to environment.

Posted by deepalib 6 years ago

the activity is very interesting; but my fear is it may miss the objective of knowing each other as people focus on winning the game

Posted by Getahun 7 years ago

This would be a good ESL activity.

Posted by Andrew Rogers 8 years ago

interest game icebreak it

Posted by thapela 10 years ago

This was good for a meet and greet activity with our group of 50 youth. But sometimes it was a little less exciting at the end.
We found that mentioning the aim of the game isn't just to "win" at the start was helpful though.

Posted by Pip 10 years ago

I combined this with Bible questions. Such as "some one who can name the 5 major prophets of the Old Testament." "Someone who has memorized at least 10 Bible verses." "Someone who has not missed Sunday school in over a month." etc. So it was a nice combination of things about them, goes to the same school, likes to walk barefoot in mud, does not like amusement park rides, etc.

Posted by Sally 11 years ago

I'm interested to know how it works with a smaller group? Does it mean you need to make the grid smaller (ie with less spaces and attributes)?

Posted by Trish 12 years ago

youth group games

Posted by jerome 12 years ago

Its an intersting game.my doubt is what we do in a unknown group..can we make a list through guessing

Posted by joby 12 years ago

Another variation to this game is getting people to draw the person, which encourages them to hang around the person longer than just making contact long enough to get their name...

or have questions ie. 'someone who likes the same tv show as you' as opposed to just factual information. This will help kids find others with similar interests as opposed to kids that look the same as them :P

Posted by Samara 16 years ago

You could use this several different ways. You could make up a grid with the names of the people who a regulars to your youth group and leave a few blank spaces to add visitors names-use as an ice breaker to help everyone get to know each other or you could use it with the book of the Bible--put on grid in order so they will get use to seeing them in order and they could learn the books of the Bible this way. And paly either one the way you would play regular bingo-

Posted by Christine Fitzgerald 16 years ago
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